Children are born innocent with a blank slate. They develop their personalities and beliefs through life’s experiences, teachings, mentorship and observations. They are not born racist, xenophobic or vindictive. They look to parents, leaders and people of perceived importance for validation of actions and beliefs.

Currently, we are sending messages of the wrong sort if we want to develop a peaceful, successful, caring society. We are teaching them that it is OK to judge people who are different, to judge them by the color of their skin or their country of origin, that it is OK to attempt to purge our communities of those who threaten to dilute our race and customs.

We’ve shown that it’s OK to use strength to intimidate, invade and kill those who are weaker; to use cyber bullying, name calling, misinformation and disinformation to discredit people with different views or believes; that laws do not apply to us if they interfere with our goals.

We’re showing young people that it is acceptable to intimidate, humiliate and punish friends and allies if they disagree with us.

We are daily educating our youth in what is acceptable. Now there are reports of President Trump saying, “I mean, you get a guy who gets in there, he’s got a good line of crap. He gets in, and all of a sudden, you’re stuck with a man who’s a moron. This is not good.”

The inexcusable part is that our own Sen. Susan Collins continues to support and empower this individual, corrupting our youth about what’s acceptable.

Jeffrey Pike
Winthrop